GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College men's lacrosse team came back to earn a 6-5 non-conference win over the Mount Union Purple Raiders in the season opener for both teams Saturday at the Rissell-Schreyer Dome.
 
Mount Union jumped out to an early 3-0 Saturday. Chris Motter scored the first goal of the game at the 14:54 mark. Alek Kungle increased the Mount Union lead to 2-0 roughly one minute later. Kungle also scored a man-up goal with less than five minutes remaining in the first quarter on a pass from Logan Addonizio.
 
Freshman Dylan Waskiewicz (York, Pa./Red Lion) scored Thiel's first goal of the game on a man-advantage with 12:08 left in the second quarter after receiving a pass from Jeffrey Karnoff (Ringoes, NJ/Hunterdon Central). Addonizio got that goal back for the Purple Raiders less than a minute later during a man-up chance.
 
Trailing 4-1 at halftime, Thiel scored four straight even-strength goals from the 10:30 mark of the third quarter to the 13:09 mark of the fourth quarter to take a 5-4 lead.
 
Karnoff scored Thiel's first goal in the second half on a pass from Kenny Hill (Inwood, N.Y./Lawrence). Noah Lazek (Washington, Pa./Trinity) scored at 9:03 of the third on a pass from Karnoff, and Karnoff scored the equalizer with 6:31 left in third quarter.
 
Waskiewicz gave Thiel a 5-4 edge early in the fourth after receiving a pass from Andrew Monks (Butler, Pa./Butler). Kungle evened the score (5-5) with 8:28 remaining in the fourth quarter.
 
Waskiewicz scored the game-winning goal, his third of the game, for the Tomcats with 33 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
Karnoff led Thiel with four points (2G, 2A) while Waskiewicz recorded a hat trick in his first collegiate game.
 
Kungle scored three goals for Mount Union while Addonizio recorded two points (1G, 1A).
 
Cole O'Connor (Midlothian, Va./James River) made nine saves for the Tomcats in 58:36 while Michael Purnell (Tipp City, Ohio/Bethel) made one save. Jake Krone made 12 saves for the Purple Raiders.
 
The Tomcats will return to action Saturday when they host the Oberlin Yeomen at the Rissell-Schreyer Dome. The non-conference game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.